I thought some might find this interesting.  It's not clear to me what the effect of hosting the PIAA basketball championships have had on PSU (it's why Terrell Pryor strung us along)...though it' seems like a good thing for both the athletic department and the school at-large.  

Many of the reasons why attendance for the PIAA championships are so poor could also be used to explain poor attendance at the PSU games.

Here's the link: http://blogs.mcall.com/groller/2009/03/will-piaa-say-see-you-later-to-psu.html

Will PIAA say "See you later" to PSU?

Total People in Discussion: 1

Today ends the 2008-09 basketball season and the three-year contract the PIAA has with Penn State to host the state basketball championships.

Will there be another contract with Penn State or will the eight championship games be headed back to Hershey, where it was from 1980-2006, or elsewhere?

Probably won't know that until the end of May, but if attendance is the No. 1 concern then the hoop championships probably won't return to Happy Valley.

Only 8,000-plus showed up on Saturday, the first day of the tournament, That's total. For four games.

In my conversation with the PIAA's Melissa Mertz, she seemed very concerned about dwinding attendance for the entire tournament and the impact of the economy and the fact that live TV makes it too easy for everyone to stay home.

As for the state finals, last year, 22,854 showed up for championship weekend after 30,300 in 2007. In 2006, the last year at Hershey, there was 30,400.

Each year, of course, the eight schools change and this year a strong Philly influence will probably limit the numbers because of the distance between Philly and State College. 

Expect a nice crowd for the Class A girls game at noon today because Pottsville Nativity, back in the finals for the seventh time in 11 years, will be playing Bishop Guilfoyle of Altoona (which is relatively close).

Penn State has done a great job hosting these championships. All of the PIAA officials I've talked to agree about that.

"But people did like going over to Chocolate World and seeing some of the other attractions that Hershey has to offer," said one who helps out the PIAA. "There's just not as much to do up here. It's a college campus. And the building, while beautiful, is just a little too big. A small crowd really looks bad here and spoils the atmosphere. The Giant Center is smaller and really more convenient to go to for more people.

"Being relatively close to Philly, the Lehigh Valley, the Scranton-Wilkes Barre area, York/Lancaster and Harrisburg, if you decide to see a game at the last minute, you can get to Hershey quick. Here, it's more of a commitment to get to."

I also believe that more private schools (charter and Catholic) in the finals doesn't help because while some of them offer great support, what really brings the people is when a whole town can get behind a team and show up en masse. With a Catholic school, you may get alums from that school, but not necessarily the whole town. The small-town thing (remember Hoosiers?) doesn't happen as much as it used to.

We'll see what happens. The Jordan Center is a great building, and the PSU community has been supportive. But if I had to guess, this will be the last night of PIAA basketball here.

The other issue PIAA has been discussing is adding two classes to football and going to six. That will again be decided in May. Compared to Florida, Texas, California and other states, yes, we are behind in total numbers of classes, but I just don't know that we really need two more to ease the playing field. One, maybe. But not two. The WPIAL (District 7) is fighting it. They want it to stay at four. Usually, they get their way.

Stay tuned.